Woodland — In all-star action, it is pitching and defense that wins games. Unfortunately for the Four Leaf Clover 11-12 all-stars, it was Philipsburg\’s defense that had the upper hand Thursday night and ended up with the win.
Philipsburg played errorless defense through 8 full innings; while the Four Leaf Clover all-stars comitted 3 errors that led to 2 unearned runs in a 3-2 loss.
Philipsburg took an early lead off of a 2-run homer by starting pitcher Mark Curtis in the top of the first inning. The runner on base had reached on an error, leading to one of the unearned runs.
Four Leaf immediately cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first on a blast into the trees by Chad Speigle.
Four Leaf starter Kurtis Krise settled in and didn\’t allow another run in his 7 innings.
The game was tied in the bottom of the 5th on another solo shot by Speigle.
Philipsburg didn\’t score again until the top of the 8th off of hard luck losing pitcher Dalton Wisor. Hunter Harris delivered what turned out to be the game winning hit with a single that scored Matt Carpin, who had reached on an infield error.
Four Leaf went down with a fight as the game ended with runners on the corners.
The Four Leaf all-stars will now travel to Milesburg on Saturday night for the loser\’s bracket final. The winner of that game will need to beat Philipsburg twice to claim the Northern Tier title.
Milesburg, which lost 10-0 to Four Leaf already in the tourney, bested Mountain Top 3-2 to advance to Saturday\’s game.
Score by Inning R H E
Philipsburg 200 000 01 3 4 0
Four Leaf Clover 100 010 00 2 7 3
WP – Matt Carpin
LP – Dalton Wisor
HR – Curtis; Speigle 2